ChinmayC Blog

Someone laments inconsolably, ‘It’s no time to go! He had so many things to do!’ which is quite a natural reaction in matters concerning death, irrespective of the age or the state of health or the circumstances surrounding the person. The pain is always there, only the intensity might vary depending on how close to heart the person is to us, personally or otherwise. No doubt, the personal loss is the most intense one in any tragedy, often leaving the bereaved unable to handle the pain. The screen icons or the celebrities become very close to us over the years even though we never meet him/her at a personal level and thus their passing-away leaves us grieving and in shock. The loss of Nana Patekar is a very intensely shocking pain to me at a personal level, although I never knew or met him personally; his screen images and performances endeared him to me over the decades till I last saw him in Houseful5 movie just months before. Born as Vishwanath Patekar in Maharashtra, Nana Patekar...

This post is not a researched article nor even an entertainment news item! It’s an account based on personal observations that, as I perceived, might indicate rather funny amusing goings-on behind the scenes! I’ve decided to write it down here since it involves two huge movie personalities, two great shows and the Sony Entertainment Television (SET). The huge Bollywood celebrities are none other than Amitabh Bachchan and another stalwart but a younger actor Ajay Devgn . The great shows are the Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) quiz hosted by Amitabh Bachchan and the Crime Patrol 2026 hosted now by Ajay Devgn. The two shows are currently being broadcast on SET. Season 18 of the KBC started from August 10, 2026 with its traditional slot of 9 pm to 10.30 pm Monday to Friday. When Amitabh Bachchan seemed to be struggling to finally shift from the accustomed heroes’ roles to character roles the KBC Show, launched on Star Plus channel in 2000, re-established him as an actor whom people of a...

How we enjoyed playing cricket and also watching it in bright sunshine on a chilly winter day from the early seventies till Commerce took over the game, converting it to an all-season affair and making no difference between day and night! Well, there’s nothing we can complain about! It’s the need of the times and the people going through with less and less time for the olden charms of life, sports or nature! We’re here talking about the 4 th T20I match between India and South Africa, and it’s that form of cricket which is, in fact, the result of commerce. Actually we, the kids, in the early seventies also played limited-overs matches having no inkling of the transformation coming in the later decades. Nowadays we get to play or watch only the long-format Tests and domestic matches in pristine conditions of wintry sunshine, with all one-day and T20 matches almost entirely converted to day-n-night affairs. Ruthless experiments are also going on to convert the classical Test Cricket t...

In all my Bollywood , read Hindi movies , viewing experience this should be the first movie with a serious attempt to deal with an air disaster or a possible air disaster, a genre that the commercial Hindi films never really tried to explore barring a few on plane hijack, most prominently the intense drama of Neerja (2016) based on a real-life brave air hostess. The movie Runway 34 , also loosely based on true incidents and released on the occasion of Eid in April-end this year, tells the story of a flight from Dubai to Cochin that entered the vortex of a raging cyclone nearly crash-landing in the Trivandrum airport with 150 passengers on board, and then followed by the grueling investigation into the near-crash. The first half of the film dwells entirely on the flight starting at the wee hours from Dubai and is a gripping saga of what happened on its course from the takeoff onward, told with the required details and intensity that are always missing in most commercial Bollywood m...

Why should any film director, let him/her be a seriously famous or crass commercial maker, make a movie like the ’12 O’ Clock’ (2021) while still in the right frame of mind? I’m saying so because the film, placed in the ‘horror’ genre, is ludicrously absurd, inadvertently funny and with superimposed superficial characters. The angst of the viewers is particularly aggravated if that filmmaker happens to be an era-defining and a prolific one for over three decades. I cannot restrain myself from quoting the Hindi teaser that goes like this, ‘ Tera barah baj gaya kya ?’ (Have you got done with it?) while avoiding the Sardar jokes associated with the ’12 o’ clock’ phenomenon. Mind you, I’m far from trying to be offensive or insulting in any possible manner for I’ve been a devout admirer of the filmmaker since the 90s. As the title suggests I’m just asking as to what may have been happening with him in the recent years. However, it’s a far cry as regards the remotest possibility of this piec...

Irrfan Khan, a powerhouse of incredible acting talent, passed away in a Mumbai hospital today morning leaving a vacuum in the Hindi film industry, a loss irreparable. He was only 53, and had so much to offer to the film lovers yet.   There was disturbing news circulating in 2018 about Irrfan contracting a serious disease which, after months of distressed speculation, was confirmed as neuro-endocrine tumor, one of the rarest forms of cancer. Since then he was fighting, fighting and fighting. He got treatment in the US and then in London for months. He returned to India a few months back, and could not take part in the promotion of his last movie, Angrezi (English) Medium , and the movie too could not be released due to the nation-wide lockdown. More saddening, he lost his mother only a few days back and could not attend her last rites in Jaipur, again due to the lockdown. Irrfan’s demise is a huge tragedy to strike when the country is reeling under Coronavirus and lockdown. The hig...

Pran—a name that terrorized us as little kids; a name that we loved to adore as we grew older and a name that has remained with us till now and forever. We were struck with awe by his villainous portrayals and yet we could not stop liking him—his gait, his style of talking, his looks, his smart dress code and the eternal cigarette in his hands. That time we were not capable of judging him as an actor, but the way he kept us spellbound was only due to his intensely powerful and effective performances. Since we loved him so much even as a villain we longed to see him as a good guy on the side of the fighting-for-truth hero. And, we got that hugely satisfying and gratifying experience too. Pran Krishan Sikand (born 1920) turned 93 in February this year and yesterday, the 12 th of April, 2013, he was chosen for the supreme honour of Indian cinema—the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2012. Maybe a little late as the classic Bollywood actor is almost unable to walk around or talk articulately. Bu...